Carnivore Can Read Everything

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Carnivore Can Read Everything

WASHINGTON – The FBI's controversial e-mail surveillance tool, known as Carnivore, can retrieve all communications that go through an Internet service, far more than FBI officials have said it does, according to a Bureau documents and a recent FBI test.

An FBI official involved with the test stressed Friday that although Carnivore has the ability to grab a large quantity of e-mails and Web communications, current law and specific court orders restrict its use.

Nevertheless, privacy experts said they are worried about the breadth of Carnivore's capability and questioned why the FBI even conducted such a test in June if it intends to use the tool only for narrow purposes.

"That really contradicts the explanation that the FBI has provided as to the purpose of the system and how it works," said David Sobel, general counsel for the Washington-based Electronic Privacy Information Center. "We've been led to believe that the purpose of Carnivore is to filter and pinpoint the particular communications that the FBI is authorized to obtain. If that's true, then why are they testing the system's ability to store and archive everything?"

Sobel's group recently obtained the FBI documents that provide the test results, as part of litigation it brought under the Freedom of Information Act.

In the lab report, FBI officials said Carnivore "could reliably capture and archive all unfiltered traffic to the internal hard drive" and could save the information on removable high-capacity disks as well.

Marcus Thomas, head of the FBI's cybertechnology section, said in an interview with The Associated Press that the test was only done to check Carnivore's "breaking point." He said the tool would not be used to capture broad swaths of Internet communications in a real-world situation.

Thomas was one of the FBI agents who approved the lab report.

"Certainly, in operation, you could set the filters up to do nothing," Thomas said. "But our procedures are very detailed, we'll only do what we're allowed to in a court order."

The difference of opinion is the latest in what has become a debate between Carnivore's capabilities and its actual use.

While law enforcement officials have admitted that Carnivore can capture much more than e-mail, including Internet chats and Web browsing, FBI officials insist it is only used to copy e-mails to a criminal suspect or from a criminal suspect in accordance with a court order.

Opponents say the "black box" nature of the system keeps the public from knowing what it can really do, and its installation at an Internet provider may cause network problems.

The Electronic Privacy Information Center started receiving batches of Carnivore-related material in October, after a court ordered the FBI to release the information.

EPIC representatives said they have received about 550 pages so far, and expect to get only about 30 percent of the 3,000 documents related to Carnivore. Most of the released documents have large portions blacked out.

FBI officials say Carnivore has been used in about 25 cases, most of them involving national security.

Congress considered several measures this year to rein in Carnivore, but none survived. Lawmakers have said that they may consider measures again next year.

An independent review of Carnivore was ordered by Attorney General Janet Reno. That report is due to be received by the Justice Department on Friday, Justice spokeswoman Chris Watney said.

Watney said the report is expected to be released to the public early next week, after it is edited to eliminate references to Carnivore's internal blueprints and other sensitive material.